Reciprocating floor conveyors are used in a wide variety of applications wherein the conveyor slats of the reciprocating floor conveyors are subject to a substantial amount of pounding and abuse. For example, garbage-hauling trailers, equipped with reciprocating floor conveyors, are used to haul solid waste material to disposal sites. At garbage dump stations, waste material is dumped into these open-top, garbage-hauling trailers and onto the conveyor slats of the reciprocating floor conveyor, which forms the floor of the trailer. As the waste material is dumped onto the reciprocating floor conveyor, heavy objects, some with sharp or protruding edges, pound and scrape the conveyor slats as the trailer is loaded. In some applications, a compactor compacts the loaded solid waste material downwardly against the conveyor slats, prior to the garbage being hauled to the disposal site. This compaction of the garbage greatly increases the forces that the reciprocating floor conveyor must withstand.
Reciprocating floor conveyors also are used in trailers for transporting fire wood debris comprising large sections of tree trunks and branches. Typically, a garbage truck dumps the wood debris from an elevated position above the trailer, whereby the heavy sections of tree trunks and branches crash down upon the conveyor slats of the reciprocating floor conveyor. As a result, the reciprocating floor conveyors can sustain a substantial amount of damage. Reciprocating floor conveyors are also used in stationary applications to convey scrap metal, tires, wheels, engines, and many other types of bulky waste products. Typically, these waste products, like garbage and wood debris, are dumped or channeled onto reciprocating floor conveyors and transported by the conveyors to a collection site.
Damage to the conveyor slats can result in the conveyor slats not reciprocating properly and in the conveyor slats leaking fluid underneath the conveyor. Solutions to this problem have included manufacturing the conveyor slats out of steel, rather than aluminum, to provide them sufficient strength for handling the impact forces to which reciprocating floor conveyors are subjected. However, the use of steel as a manufacturing material greatly increases the weight of the conveyors, which can be prohibitive for many applications, such as truck-and-trailer vehicles. A compromise solution to increase durability has been to secure a steel wear strip on the conveyor slats. In most cases, the steel wear strips covered and protected only portions of the conveyor slats. In all cases, the use of steel wear strips had an adverse affect on the weight of the reciprocating floor conveyors.
Accordingly, a principal object of the present invention is to provide an improved design for a reciprocating floor conveyor that is durable, yet lightweight, and avoids the problems discussed above with regard to prior art conveyors.